View Full Version : Alexander Total War: who's got it? who likes it?
I'm curious - how many people here got the Alexander Total War expansion for RTW?
I confess I have an ulterior motive for asking - I'm working on a (very) mini-mod for it[1] and am curious about how many other members could play it. I was hoping Lusted would do the work for me, but with the sad death of his superb-looking Alexandros mod, I am going to do something quick and dirty instead.
I know it's been discussed before, but to make the poll more interesting, I'm asking what ATW owners thought of the game? I confess I was disappointed - primarily with the battles in the campaign. They were too hectic and too easy (rather quickly turning into insta-routs), like the vanilla RTW ones are. The campaign seemed promising - with a tight economy and timetable, plus a lot of opposition. But I disliked having to butcher every city I conquered - it felt more like Timurlane Total War than Alexander.
[1]No new graphics, units, map etc - just a minimal reworking of some text files. I've modded the stats for movement, morale and kill rates so that battles last a bit longer. I'm also fiddling with the economy so Alexander does not have to exterminate everything in his wake.
Voted number 2.
I was really looking forward to finishing my Alexandros mod, as i was making it as much for myself as for the community. I thought it would have been pretty good:
-all new models and skins
-new unit lists
-India and Greek Cities in the campaign
-longer battles
-huge new campaign map, so more field battles
-EB-style goverments
But unfortunately major comp problems put a death to it. I may be able to dig up the Macedonian skins i did for it, as i think i have them backed up somewhere, and that was from when i transferred stuff from my old pc to my new one, several months ago.
A modified Munuds Magna, eg cutting out the south east portion of it could do for a new campaign map. Muizer, who was doing the Alexandros map for me, may even be willing to finsih it off for you.
Conqueror
10-12-2006, 15:17
Voted Don't own it and won't buy it
I would reconsider buing if there were some very good mods for it.
there is not really an option for me in this poll :(
i do own alexander, but i haven't played it yet as i'm only playing rtw/bi at the moment, so i don't know if i will enjoy it
but if it's really like people say it is - no diplomacy, no startegy, fast pace, battles, razing, battles, razing, battles, razing, and so on - i guess i definitely WON'T like it
but who knows, maybe mods will change it...
Haven't voted, because I really don't know what to vote.
I liked the historical battles, but I hate the campaign.
The Marcher Lord
10-13-2006, 00:09
Mine was a don't own it won't buy it vote.
1. The so called new units were not fantastically different to what we already had, just re-skin jobs really.
2. It sounded like just a bunch of historical battles strung together with very little strategy other than just kill everything including women children and animals.
3. I have never been impressed by Alexander the Great who, rather than offering anything useful to mankind, simply slaughtered thousands of people on some crazed ego trip vendetta against the Persians.
fallen851
10-13-2006, 01:10
If a good skinner/modeller re-does all the units, I'll get it and edit the text files.
I can't get it because downloading is out of the questions (for a host of reasons, please don't ask lol) and It isn't released in box in the US, except in the uberexpensive Eras! Does anyone know where I can get a LEGAL copy?
Mine was a don't own it won't buy it vote.
1. The so called new units were not fantastically different to what we already had, just re-skin jobs really.
2. It sounded like just a bunch of historical battles strung together with very little strategy other than just kill everything including women children and animals.
3. I have never been impressed by Alexander the Great who, rather than offering anything useful to mankind, simply slaughtered thousands of people on some crazed ego trip vendetta against the Persians.
You don't know your history very well, windbag. :D
Bombasticus Maximus
10-13-2006, 18:29
I have it and it was ok but it'd be better if modded.
You don't know your history very well, windbag. :D
I second that.
Rex_Pelasgorum
10-13-2006, 19:40
I think the concept of recreating a "conquista" using a RTW-like campaign map is ment to be a failure.What is atracting to a campaign map is the posibility of using diplomacy, economy, navy, strategy, defence lines, etc. Simple conquista is the most boring thing ever, and i am sure that in the moment when the player gets to the moment when it starts steamrolling trough the map, 60-70% of players quit the game and start a new campaign.
They should have released a package of historicall battles, but in a sort of "arcade" style, in the sense that , for example to unlock Gaugamela you need to have won previous battles at Halicarnassus, Issus and Tyre, etc... Recreate all the major battles of Alexander, whith LARGE introductory movies for each (not just movies made whith the RTW engine, but maybe even parts from the movie "Alexander"). That would have been truly awesome....
That is basically what Alexander is with its historical battles, you can only play oen after the previous one has been won, and there are long intro movies for them.
Neon twilight
10-13-2006, 23:57
Historical battles were surprisly good but I hadn'z the courage to push the "next turn" button in the campaign and quited, hopefuly I got it in total war earas with the excellent MTW 1 and Shogun :sweatdrop: .
Biggus Diccus
10-14-2006, 16:18
Historical battles are good. The first 20 turns of the campaign was pretty fun, lots of battles :2thumbsup: But replay value is close to zero imho.
But Macedon phalanx is pretty über against Persian units which insta-routs against your phalanx-line, so you can't help winning. The first turns are pretty challenging, bacause you are outnumbered pretty badly. CA could have made the campaign more interesting, though. It feels a little rushed and infinished.
Too bad the Alxandros mod went :skull: I really looked forward to that one.
Just to say, I have released some tweaks to the ATW campaign that make it play more to my taste. People are welcome to try the mini-mod and give me feedback:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=70575
Kaldhore
10-23-2006, 18:08
Obviously I doubted that there would be anything different to the AI, so I wasnt too disappointed. I prefer a slow strategy on the camp map rather than attack and decimate as fast as poss. My camps in RTW (extended Greek mod) took months in gameplay rather than the 2-3 nights I can see myself doing the ATW camp.
Strangely tho im having a hard time on the Historical battles, Phillip keeps routing before i kill the second unit of Thebans, and im not a n00b at this game either.
I reinstalled a fresh install of RTW before I installed the 1/5 patch and ATW. And that meant uninstalling XGM (extended Greek mod) which I now regret, The X-large map on xgm made the game great.
One Question. If I choose to play the vanilla RTW, has ATW made any changes to it that would effect me installing XGM again? Or is it best to create another copy of RTW and mod that...
Celt Centurion
11-09-2006, 19:46
I didn't think I'd ever see it in the backwater town I live in, but bought the "Total War Eras" pack yesterday.
I first put in the Alexander Disc, and played it.
As someone else said, no diplomats, which means no trade rights, and very limited income.
Very few troops had armor, and just waiting the time out to build a blacksmith and then an armorer will burn up a third of your time.
I ran out of time as one army finished taking a city just to the left of the Crimean Peninsula, and Alexander was a turn from besieging Egypt.
The real kicker, is that you cannot keep going after Alexander is dead. End of game.
I'll try again later, using troops without armor, hoping they can take a city with an armorer elsewhere.
Strength and Honor
Celt Centurion
Lorenzo_H
11-26-2006, 19:18
it was said that alexander would only be availible for download, but I went into my local Game last weekend to look at M2TW, and I saw a whole shelf of copies of RTW Alexander. It was heavily priced at 20 quid so I didn't even consider getting it. If it goes below 10 pounds I might look into it, but its unlikely I will buy it, since now I have medieval 2. Someone defy my decision.
I can't vote yet, but I'd probably be somewhere between 2 and 3. I did not like the fact that I had limited turns to complete the game with, I tend to turtle and tech. As such, I cheated like hell and modded the game just to see how fast I could blitz through it, I didn't get too far in. Custom battles were somewhat interesting, but the game just didn't really hold any long term value for me. Got it with the Eras pack, incidentally.
Cheers! :balloon2:
Lorenzo_H
12-01-2006, 14:11
the poll is closed so you wont be able to vote anyway. how the heck do you have 152 posts and still be a junior member?
the poll is closed so you wont be able to vote anyway. how the heck do you have 152 posts and still be a junior member?
Whoops, I didn't notice it was closed. RE: my status, meh. I only signed up on 11-15-2006. Guess I'm just pretty prolific/vocal. :grin: Status means nothing to me, I'd stay a junior member forever if it weren't for two things; one, I *really really really* want to be able to edit my posts, and two I'd like a bigger pmsg inbox. Other than that, I could care less.
Cheers!:balloon2:
Lorenzo_H
12-03-2006, 23:20
heh youve joined at a bad (or actually good) time. The org is probably getting floods of members with the release of M2TW so Juniors are having to wait longer. I signed up earlier this year about a month after the release of the Rome Gold, and I only had to wait a matter of a few days before being promoted.
One thing im really not happy about with ATW is that when it came out they said it'd only be on download, so i downloaded it. And as earlier mentioned, it is now available to buy. So now if i format my pc or get myself a new one, im buggered over transferring it, ive no hard copy.
Buggers
Anyway, yeh, as for the campaign, routing is too easy, and 100 turns isnt enough, and it was made even more irritating for me because i had one city left to take till i had the 60 required settlements (or whatever the requirement is), and then the game ended. Bastards.
gardibolt
05-23-2007, 22:01
Save the download file and the email confirming your purchase. I just rebuilt my computer, and I replied to the confirmation email, asking for a new key code for Alex. I got it in 24 hours and the game works fine.
Shieldmaiden
05-24-2007, 16:00
I got Alexander in the Rome Anthology, I've yet to complete a Campaign but I quite liked the pressure - it gives it a very different "feel" to Rome.
Severous
05-25-2007, 21:04
Not sure if I like it much. Playing my first campaign. Lot of big battles. This was the second battle of the campaign:
https://img510.imageshack.us/img510/7936/alexander5bigbattle1ew8.th.jpg (https://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=alexander5bigbattle1ew8.jpg)
Roman_Man#3
05-25-2007, 21:48
Who is considering buying it now that LOTR - TW is for it, possibly Megas Alexandros as well.
Warmaster Horus
05-25-2007, 22:26
I got it as part of the Eras Pack. Kind of a small bonus, and I can say I don't really mind. What I'd like is that the various Historical Battles permit enough a leeway to change the way of the battle:Chaeronea, for example. Alexander and his companions destroyed the Sacred Bands, sure, but he probably was not asked to charge into the remainder of the enemy.
The second battle, the river one, I can't remember the name, could be different too: instead of an attack, Alex defends. The objective would be to attack and destroy, but after a certain time, the enemy would charge, and -> river defense battle.
I have it but it's the least of my favorite RTW games.
As a fledgling modder, I like the models for it, and the inclusion of Immortals, but otherwise too small a game with little replay value.
The Historical Battles were a bitch to finish, but made me that much better a general. They are very very good, I can say much of the value of ATW is from this.
I, too, am looking forward to LOTR:TW
Bootsiuv
05-28-2007, 18:11
heh youve joined at a bad (or actually good) time. The org is probably getting floods of members with the release of M2TW so Juniors are having to wait longer. I signed up earlier this year about a month after the release of the Rome Gold, and I only had to wait a matter of a few days before being promoted.
Look at when I joined! :laugh4: Granted, I don't post much, but I lurk everyday. I sure would like to edit the few posts I do write, though.:yes:
edyzmedieval
05-28-2007, 18:17
I bought it, enjoyed it, but left it because too many big battles. I got bored.
il-principe
05-31-2007, 21:35
I've played only a couple of turns so far, but I really liked it. Indeed the campaign is quite tough at the start as you might have to fight several hard a turn. The Persians are not very strong, but they numerous and you can expect hordes of them.
If someone wants to mod the game, that would be very welcome.:2thumbsup:
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